The impact of this serious outbreak has put the entire real estate market at risk. Though business has resumed after a long Tet holiday break, more effort now is mainly focused on ways to cope with the nCoV epidemic.
One senior manager of a real estate company in District 3 of Ho Chi Minh City said that all employees and customers who come to the company must wear a mandatory surgical face mask, wash hands with antiseptic soap and have their body temperature taken before entering the premises. Anyone showing signs of even a light fever or cough must be isolated and taken for further medical examination and related treatment immediately.
The NG Real Estate Company issued a notice to all its employees to seriously follow all prevention measures by wearing a surgical face mask during work time, wash hands with antiseptic soap, have a full health check, and immediately enter quarantine if declared sick. In particular, officials and employees who have just travelled from China must work from their homes for an incubation period of fourteen days.
Mr. Doan Thanh Ngoc, General Director of the PropertyX Company, shared that the strict implementation of the Government instructing the public to avoid crowded areas such as festivals, conferences or seminars is a wise move. Businesses that had planned sales events and ground-breaking functions after Tet have been postponed or cancelled. Mr. Ngoc said that their new projects that are under development in Bien Hoa, Vung Tau, Binh Duong and Quy Nhon are still good deals for investors, but now customers are afraid to go to crowded places. Therefore, the company has arranged for open sales to take place via smartphones and the internet.
Real estate expert Tran Khanh Quang said that avoiding crowded places and limiting travel will make it harder for vendors to sell any products to customers. Real estate dealings especially pertaining to resorts will be seriously affected due to absence of Chinese tourists in places like Phu Quoc, Da Nang and Nha Trang. It is expected that in the first quarter of 2020, transactions will decline sharply and investors will likely sell off and cut losses. According to Mr. Quang, in 2019, real estate prices shot up too high but had somewhat levelled off by the end of the year. Now with this sudden eruption of the nCoV epidemic the market is sure to face a difficult time for the next six months at least.
In a talk with Saigon Investment, Mr. Le Hoang Chau, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA), said that in the last two years the real estate market in the City had fallen sharply. Many housing projects were also stalled due to failure to carry out construction procedures, but while several bottlenecks in procedures have still not been removed, this unforeseen occurrence of the Coronavirus epidemic is likely to increase difficulties and problems for the real estate market in coming times.
